


Family Reunions

by SunflowerSupreme



Series: Yondu Lives [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aleta wants to steal (adopt) groot, Gen, Yondu week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 04:46:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14742251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunflowerSupreme/pseuds/SunflowerSupreme
Summary: Family reunions are what happens when you come back from the dead. It’s normal. Except, it’s Aleta, so it’s exactly the opposite of normal.Or, Aleta just wants to yell at Yondu for being an idiot. A houseplant disagrees.Yondu Week Day Three: Yellow, Secret, Despair, Family, Reunion





	Family Reunions

**Author's Note:**

> Yondu Week Day Three: Yellow, Secret, Despair, Family, Reunion
> 
> Also trying a new POV? Hi Aleta, you weren’t supposed to be the main character, what are you doing?

“I am Groot.”

Aleta glanced down at the small Flora Colossus that was between herself and Yondu’s room. He was peeking through the door, staring up at her as though he couldn’t decide if he should let her in or not. “I am Aleta.” Okay, so mocking him wasn’t going to win her any favors.

“I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot,” he babbled, shaking his head furiously. She couldn’t pretend to understand him, but judging by how little he seemed to want her inside, she assumed Yondu was sleeping again.

Decompression did that. So did being a standoffish asshole who didn’t want to speak to anyone.

Aleta knelt down in front of him, peering curiously at him. “Where’s your rodent pal?” she asked finally.  _I need someone who can understand you_. Something told her that simply pushing him aside and entering wouldn’t win her any favors with Yondu’s new… were they his crew? Aleta wasn’t certain and she didn’t like not being certain, which was why she was going straight to the blue asshole himself to demand answers.

“I am Groot.”

Oh, right, he couldn’t even tell her where his translator was. “Is he with you?” She pointed past Groot, toward the door, praying that it was as simple as that.

Groot furiously shook his head. “I am Groot!”

“Can you point which direction he went?” She was relieved when he raised his left arm and pointed. “I am Groot.” But her relief was short lived as he raised his right arm and pointed in the opposite direction as well. “I am Groot.”

“Can you even understand me?”

“I am Groot.” This time, she said it along with him, earning her a surprised look from the plant and a snigger from inside the room.

Aleta froze, staring at the door. “Oh, you bastard.” She stood and stormed past Groot, who squealed and grabbed onto her leg, chattering all the way as he rode her foot through the door and into Yondu’s sick room.

“Jus' don’t go askin' him to bring ya nuthin,” Yondu taunted, somehow managing to look smug while wrapped in layers of blankets, with an ugly orange doll perched atop them. “E might jus' bring ya a toe instead.”

“I am Groot!”

“Sure thing Twig,” he grumbled, flopping one arm over the side of the bed. “Ya didn’t hurt nobody. I believe ya.” Despite the fact that his voice still burned from decompression, it still managed to drip with sarcasm.

“I am Groot!” he jumped off Aleta’s foot, catching Yondu’s arm and scurrying up his sleeve, making a nest in his lap and then pulling the orange into his arms. “I am Groot.”

“Is this your newest stolen trinket then?” Aleta asked with a raised eyebrow.

“The troll?” he asked. “Nah, Petey gave dat ta me a while back.”

The orange thing must be this ‘troll’ then, she decided, barely sparing it a glance as she smirked at Yondu’s statement. “No, the Flora Colossus.”

“I am Groot?” Yondu and Groot looked at one another and then simultaneously burst out laughing. The small plant rolled around on Yondu’s chest, somehow managing to not fall off.

“Shiiitt ‘Leta,” he rasped, “I already died once dis week. I ain’t gonna let the rat kill me.” That was as far as he got before his laughter turned violent, becoming hacking coughs that caused his fingers to curl into the blankets and his forehead to clench in pain.

Aleta lurched forward, shoving him back onto the blankets and pressing his chest. “Stay flat,” she ordered, cupping his head in her hand as she reached for the breathing mask beside his bed. She snapped it over his mouth - he must have truly been in pain, not protesting once - and held it there until the coughing faded away. She waited a moment longer before removing the mask, which came away stained with blue blood.

He grabbed a cloth from beside where she had found the mask and spat into it, emptying his mouth of blood. Aleta offered him a glass of water as Groot held out the troll. “Nah thanks,” he sputtered. “Ya watch it fer me.”

“I am Groot.”

“Whatchu mean ya gotta go?”

“I am Groot.” And with that, the small Flora Colossus lept off the bed and scampered out the door, brightly colored toy still clutched in his grasp.

“Gonna shoot Pete,” he grumbled. Aleta snorted, she had gathered (by eavesdropping on the Guardians) that such death threats were normal. “I mean it dis time. He bribed Twig ta tell ‘im if I got worse! ‘E sold me out for candy!”

“And Stakar never paid you to keep me out of trouble.” 

Yondu’s jaw dropped. “Ya wasn’t supposed ter know.”

“You weren’t subtle.”

Yondu scowled and glared at the far wall. “Well,” he said finally, “whatever ya got to say ya best do it before Quill gets ‘ere and starts ‘is blubberin.”

She sat in the chair beside his sick bed, joining him in staring at the wall as though it might hold all the secrets of the universe. “Perhaps I just wanted to see the great Yondu Undonta, sick and unable to care for himself. Reliant on others. Childlike.”

“Ouch.” It was obvious her barbs hadn’t truly hurt him, his voice was as toneless and flat as before. “Ya really know where to hit a man.”

“Last time I threatened to castrate you, you tried to bite me.”

Yondu snorted. “Don’t make me laugh woman, less you wanna be dealin' with Quill when I cough uppa lung.”

"So you're going to send your pet Terran after me?"

"Ain't my pet," Yondu muttered shiftily, his eyes flicking between Aleta and the door as though waiting for it to spring open and reveal the Guardians.

That was part of one of the answers she had been looking for at least. “Then what is he?” she asked suspiciously. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Yondu, she had just spent too many years seeing him as a heartless child abductor and wanted - needed - answers.

Yondu watched her for a moment, frowning. “Ain’t sure,” he said testily. His voice dropped to almost a whisper as he grumbled, “e’s mine.”

“He’s yours,” she repeated, hiding her growing amusement at watching the Ravager captain attempt to remain stoic whilst talking about someone he so clearly adored. If Rocket was to be believed - and they had no reason not to - then he had single-handedly wiped out almost his entire crew in order to rescue his Terran.

“I raised ‘im! Mostly. Mighta threatened to eat ‘im a time or two, but that was bein’ funny.”

“Threatened to eat him?” she repeated, amused. That was the Yondu she remembered, all bluster if someone was bold enough to threaten to actually care about him.

“Eh, I reckon Ego really did eat his kids so’s at least I was jokin.”

“Ego being the Celestial you were selling kids to?”

His eyes narrowed, clearly growing bored of repeating himself. “I told ya once I told ya a million times, I didn’t know what ‘e was doin’ wit those kids. I ain’t sayin’ it again.” Except she had no doubt he would say it again, if not to her or Stakar then to himself. 

She turned away, looking at the door, still waiting for Peter to burst back in. “Either way, you knew the code.”

“I wanted ‘em to have a home.” She didn’t look at him as he spoke, his voice was too muddled and if she turned and saw tears in his eyes she wasn’t certain how she was going to react. “I thought he mus’ really love ‘em.”

To a man sold into slavery by his own parents, the idea of someone caring enough to send someone across the galaxy to hunt down his children must have sounded like heaven.  _We shouldn’t have turned him loose so soon_ , she thought bitterly. But something told her that she wouldn’t have fared any better, not after having lost her own children.  _Ravagers don’t deal in kids_  was a policy created after her and Stakar’s children had died because of their greed, but if she had been approached by a kindly old man who just wanted to see his babies, what would she have done? What would Stakar have done? Aleta didn’t like the dark path her thoughts were taking, so she simply forced out a soft, “I see.”

“No, ya don’t.” She turned to glare at the other. “Ya don’t have ta see their faces and imagine ‘em turning into piles o’ bones. Ya don’t remember all their names or where ya found ‘em or which mammas you promised to care for their kiddos.”

“No,” she said slowly. “But I remember mine.”  _And I remember you, even if you weren’t a kid, you were as helpless as one_.

That shut him up. They were both still sitting in silence when Peter barged into the room, Groot happily squealing on his shoulder. “I am Groooot!”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Groot is Yondu’s guardian partially because no one else can put up with Yondu long enough and partially because they all know no one can possibly stand to upset Groot. If you're dumb enough to make Groot cry then the Guardians all take turns mutilating you.
> 
> One of these days I'm gonna need to do an AU where Yondu goes to Stakar as soon as he realizes what Ego's up to and convinces him to hear him out and then they rescue Peter together.
> 
> Yondu better watch out or Aleta and Stakar are gonna kidnap the kid he rightfully stole.
> 
> *** In the comics Stakar and Aleta's kids died because Stakar convinced her that "they'll be fine on their own for a little while" and so I turned that into they went on some pirate thing and someone killed their kids. Maybe in a mutiny?
> 
> *** Yondu teaches Groot all the swear words he knows. What can I say, he’s a terrible influence.
> 
> *** Yes, that “ugly orange doll” is the troll doll.
> 
> Follow me on tumblr for more nonsense: [SunflowerSupremes](https://sunflowersupremes.tumblr.com/).


End file.
